Rose White Piano Keys
by Melanie-Says
Summary: "I'm just a waiter, Haruhi! Maybe in some alternate universe would I be able to openly come out and scream to the world about how much I truly, deeply love you, but the reality is that any attempt from me is futile. We live in two different worlds and that's just what hurts the most about it. You're so close but so far away, never to be mine." (Waiter!Hosts AU)
1. Chapter 1

Rose White Piano Keys

Chapter One

_Haruhi had always believed that her brain was her most important organ; it worked twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, from the moment you arrive into the world until the minute you die. However, for some people, it stops working even before that. It quits mere seconds before you make the most important discovery in your life; the second that you fall hopelessly, irrevocably, deeply in love._

* * *

An average Friday at Aberi, the international fine dining establishment that had been raved about by critics and food lovers alike, is always more busy than any other day of the week, especially in the late spring and early summer when all the schools have their dances and the men were expected to bring their dates out for dinner, what they hadn't expected when they walked into the large brick building was that their counterparts wouldn't pay any attention to them, but instead the staff.

The main staff of Aberi was composed of six young men, fresh out of high school and college bound come the next semester, all of who had taken a job to help out with university tuition.

Tamaki, the longest working host there, had been said to be the main reason that so many young ladies had decided to spend every Friday and Saturday at the cafe. With his golden blonde hair and his piercing sapphire eyes, he barely had a real need to pull out his charm in order to get a good tip from the guests, but of course he did anyway, earning himself one of the biggest checks out of any of them.

Kyoya, Tamaki's raven haired best friend, had started out as an accountant for the establishment, but after the manager realized all the looks that he was getting as he walked into work everyday, he was put out front and he had been forced to become something of a duo with the blonde idiot.

Next were the copper-headed twins, Hikaru and Kaoru, who had originally come there as dishwashers, but driven their way into Tamaki's ranks when two other waiters hadn't shown up on a particularly busy Sunday evening. Their lack of acknowledgement of personal space and devious nature had been quite loved by many of the young guests dining that evening, and they had quickly become a sort of favorite.

Lastly, there was Takashi and Mitsukuni, also known as Mori and Hunny to their friends and even most of their regular customers. The budding friendship between the two cousins was seen as incredibly cute and adorable and many girls would often swoon when they saw Mori help Hunny carry the dishes over to the tables. Often they would see Hunny eye their desserts when they walked out with them, and would let him have a bite since he reminded them of little siblings they have or perhaps even a teddy bear. In return, he would give them the cutest smile he could muster before whispering a little thank you and trotting back off to his work station.

All in all, the men enjoyed their work and hadn't the slightest idea of what they'd do if their job happened to disappear from their lives, or rather what would happen if their friends ever decided to do anything else, which could very well happen if any of them ever broke the promise that they all set into place their first day of work.

_There is a fine line between work and your personal life, do not cross it._

They had all done fairly well in keeping that promise until a rather rainy Monday afternoon.

"Damn, it's really coming down out there, isn't it?" Hikaru noticed, scratching his head in disbelief at the thought that only a few hours ago it had been a seemingly bright and sunny day.

"It seems so," Kaoru added, moving around his twin with a large, circular tray full of food and placing it on the mahogany oval table in front of him. Hikaru noticed the creeping red blush that was invading the face of a teenage girl sitting at the table as Kaoru's hand made contact with her's when she attempted to take the silver plate from him. Her blonde hair had quickly fallen on her face, masking it but not before Kaoru had noticed also.

"I hope you enjoy your meal," He chirped sweetly, flashing a bright smile at the table before bowing and leaving again, passing by his twin once more, only to be annoyed by the sudden snickers.

"Aw, it seems like little Kaoru has an admirer!" Hikaru laughed as he slung his arm around his brother's shoulder, facing the direction that he had just walked away from.

"Shut up, Hikaru, don't embarrass her." Kaoru rolled his eyes, turning around and joining Hikaru as they both stared from afar at the green-eyed girl who still hadn't touched her pasta. The bright shades of pink and red in her face had toned down considerably, but she was still trying her best to conceal it, which Kaoru admittedly thought was adorable.

"You two! You're not getting paid to just stand there!" They heard a voice call from behind them. When the twins twirled around the were met with an annoyed glare come from none other than Tamaki Suoh, who was amazingly balancing four small trays on his arms yet still had managed to flip his gold spun hair out of his eyes.

"Whatever boss," Hikaru scoffed, taking his arm from around Kaoru's shoulder and trying to flick a piece of lint from off of his jet black vest.

"We're not getting paid _enough _to work the entire time either." Kaoru continued, noticing that one of his tables was finished and ready to have their plates picked up.

"Kao-chan! Isn't being with your friends payment enough?" Hunny chirped up sweetly, also carrying a tray full of various alcoholic drinks and green teas to a table full of college aged girls. Ever since one of them came there once three months ago and told all her friends, they made sure to stake the cafe everyday in an attempt to capture one of the waiter's attention, but instead they often just sat there, gossiping and swooning over them, much to the annoyance of the twins, who had switched tables with Hunny once one of them almost ripped Hikaru's shirt off of his own body.

"No, not really." The twins replied flatly, Hikaru removing dishes from a table while Kaoru wiped it clean. The honey colored blonde started a faint whimpering that seemed to grow higher pitched each passing moment, causing the entirety of the restaurant to look over at him with worry.

"But Hika-chan, Kao-chan..." He started choking out, grabbing a tissue from the box that Mori had brung over to him. "How c-could you s-say that?"

"I don't know sempai," Hikaru addressed, dumping the dirty dishes in a green cart that had already been filled to the brim with left over food, utensils, and plates.

"Maybe if something exciting happened every once in a while, we wouldn't dislike it nearly as much." Kaoru replied flatly, putting the cleaning rag back into the bucket of water near the glass windows.

"I'm sorry to inform you of this, but you should just be happy that you even have a job; don't complain about how fun it is considering that it's not _meant _to be fun." Kyoya mumbled as he passed by the twins and Hunny. It was obvious that he was annoyed by their manner.

"Well it wouldn't kill us to have something _new _happen." The twins answered in perfect unison, only to be stopped by the ringing of the bell as someone entered the building, causing the men to turn their attention to the door.

"Welcome." They greeted cheerfully, though were met with a surprise as a red haired man walked in and smiled at them.

"Hello boys, it's nice to see that you haven't gotten yourself fired yet." He greeted them, though then made eye contact with Tamaki before groaning.

"Don't say it-"

"Or rather, it's nice to see that _most _of you haven't gotten fired yet. Feel lucky Suoh, I'm still looking for a reason when it comes to you."

"Pleasure to see you too, sir." Tamaki answered, starting his sentence with a long sigh before moving out of the way for his boss.

"You know, we never quite learned _why _Ranka hates you so much." Hikaru and Kaoru mentioned, taking a step towards the tired blonde.

"Oh, that's a story that I just _love _to tell." Tamaki answered sarcastically before groaning, "It all started way back in high school-"

"Never mind, we're already bored with it." Hikaru interrupted him.

"Kyoya, can you give us a shortened version?" Kaoru asked his senior, who cleared his throat and looked completely bored with the situation.

"It may seem that fifteen year old Tamaki accidentally groped his then fourteen year old daughter." Kyoya replied, letting a corner of his mouth rise up in a sly smirk while the twins gasped.

"Are you absolutely serious?!" They exclaimed in unison, sharing a look of complete shock before bursting out into laughter.

"You're such a perv, boss!"

"I can't believe you did that!"

"Can't believe he did what?" They all heard a voice from behind them ask. When they turned around, they were surprised to see a small girl, roughly around the age of Hikaru and Kaoru, with brown hair that reached just above her shoulder, three pink clips keeping her bangs out of her eyes, and a matching pair of chocolate eyes staring up at them.

"And who are you?" Hikaru questioned the girl, walking up to her and leaning over until their faces were the same elevation, with his twin mimicking his motions on the side.

"Fujioka, Haruhi Fujioka." She replied flatly, looking rather annoyed at the display the twins were making. She could smell their very strong cologne and frankly she wasn't enjoying it; what she _was _enjoying was the looks of horror that the four men behind the twins had.

"Um, Hikaru, Kaoru, you might wanna stop standing so close to her." Hunny pleaded from behind them, pulling on their vests in an attempt to pull them back.

"And why should we do that?" Hikaru scoffed, taking one of the rose clips out of her hair.

"Hey! Give that back!" She exclaimed, reaching up for the clip but sadly couldn't do much considering her petite size.

"Hmmm," Hikaru started, "Kaoru, do you think we should give it back?"

"I don't know, Hikaru," Kaoru continued, "I really like this piece of plastic."

"Hikaru! Kaoru! _Give that back._" Tamaki commanded sternly, sharing a look of terror with the rest of the host club before attempting to take the clip out of Hikaru's hands.

Haruhi stood there annoyed as she watched six men try to wrestle for a simple clip, but was even more annoyed when she felt a hand reach out and accidentally touch the side of her breast. Immediately her face went red and a face popped out of the crowd.

"_I grabbed something squishy and I swear to God if it was attached to one of you I will kill you._" Hikaru shouted as he stood up and finally managed to grab the clip out of Mori's hands, but was quickly silenced when there was a deep boom from across the room.

"_Hikaru Hitachiin! I better not have just seen you fondle my daughter!_"

* * *

A:N: HEYLO WORLD I CAME BACK WITH YET AGAIN ANOTHER STORY, WOW DON'T I FEEL ACCOMPLISHED.

So I decided to do this AU because I've seriously been wanting to do this idea for so long but I never quite knew how to start it, but then, sometime while I was watching Les Miserables at this one opera house or theatre (Whichever one it is) I finally knew how I wanted to start it! Also, I'm not exactly sure on the pairing to be honest, so if you guys can vote in the poll on my blog (the one that says "favorite ouran host club pairing" or whatever) it would sure help me make my decision. Anywhosie, so I hope you at least kind of enjoyed it, perhaps add it to your follows or (even though I don't expect this already) even favorite it! A review to see how you liked it would also definitely make my day :)

Have a great (rest of the day if you live on the east coast with me) day :D


	2. Chapter 2

Rose White Piano Keys

Chapter Two

_Holy shit._

"_No sir! I did not in fact do that!"_

Ranka stood there for a few moments, cocking one of his eyebrows up and letting his dark brown eyes scan the ginger headed man. There was no way in _hell _that he was going to pretend he did not just see that lewd little pervert touch his precious daughter. Tamaki was bad enough, two was just too much to handle.

With his flaming diva wig intact, Ranka slowly took a step towards the older Hitachiin, taking long, deep breaths along the way in a failed effort to keep his temper down.

"_Hikaru!_ _He's coming towards us!_" Kaoru hissed at his twin, frightened beyond wit of what was going to happen next. They couldn't afford to lose this job, the money earned went towards their apartment, tuition, and other utilities.

"_I'm not blind, I can see that quite well!_" Hikaru growled back, pushing his clinging brother off of him before putting one foot out of the perfectly formed line to begin his perilous journey to meet his employer halfway.

"Listen, sir, it was an accident, I assur-"

"_Silence! Do you even understand the severity of what you've just done?!_" Ranka yelled at him, getting up on his tippy toes in an attempt to see eye to eye with the kid. Over the past year, Hikaru and his twin had grown quite a bit, really all the servers had, and now he was just a midget in comparison. Like any good boss though, he just raised his voice to make up for any lost respect.

"O-o-of course sir, I promise you I-" Hikaru stuttered before once again getting cut off by the spitting fest that was the mouth of Ranka Fujioka.

"_You dare touch my little Haruhi! You are just as bad as... as..." _Ranka started dramatically, taking a step back into the light of the overhead lamp to illuminate his crying face, grabbing a tissue from the conveniently placed napkin box sitting on the table next to him. "_As him!"_ He finished, putting up a hand to wipe away a tear from his eye before pointing accusingly at Tamaki who was leaning against the wall, obviously enjoying the situation prior to that moment.

"It was six _years _ago, Ranka!" Tamaki sputtered, his face twisted in annoyance at the over abundant display of drama his boss was performing. All of the guests in the business were captivated by the scene unfolding in front of them, the never ending spiral of despair that Ranka was going through was more addicting than caffeine.

"_It might as well have been six seconds ago!_" Ranka sobbed some more, blowing his nose into the tissue before he made eye contact with his unamused daughter. It took no more than two seconds and five steps before he had her locked in his embrace, stroking her soft brown hair as he tightened his grip around her.

"Oh _Haruhi!_ Why do these things always happen to _you?_" Ranka cried, though taking a moment to make sure his make up wasn't smudged.

"Listen, sir, we'd _love _to stay and coo over your over glorified daughter with you, but we have places to be, people to see, you know?" Hikaru interrupted, turning around and beginning his walk to the stairs leading to the employee work room.

"_Not so fast, Hitachiin~!" _Ranka chorused in his sing song voice, letting go of his daughter to walk right up to Hikaru and try his best to get in his face, an eerily creepy smile creeping across his cheeks as he knew what was going to happen. "_Since you are so eager to make it up to your boss that you didn't mean to sexually harass his only beloved child, let alone daughter, you are going to work until closing and clean up afterward."_

A minute went by with no sound, not a single beep, cough, giggle, only the intense gazes between the two men as everything escalated.

"What?"

"You heard me, this is your punishment for not being able to keep your little hormones under control."

"_It was on accident!_"

"Well sometimes accidents get you in trouble. Now chop chop, there is an empty table for you to clean." Ranka smirked evilly, turning around and letting his long hair swish the face of his employee in a lovely bitch slap before skipping off, only to take a brief moment to stop in front of Tamaki and shake his head in disgust.

"Damn Hikaru, you screwed up." Kaoru mumbled, biting his lip out of the second hand embarrassment for his brother.

"Wow Kaoru, thank you so much for stating the obvious."

"Anytime, now if you excuse me, I'm gonna get home. I hope you have a key." Kaoru laughed as he patted his brother on the back and walked off, joined by Kyoya, Mori and Hunny.

For a good thirty or so minutes, Hikaru did nothing; just standing there in the empty doorway as he replayed the moments that ruined his perfectly good week day. Had it not been for the complaining of one of the crazy girls, he would have completely forgotten he was still at his job. Soon enough after that, Hikaru was cleaning off the tables. It was 11 o'clock on a Monday night and he was most certainly ready to go home since he had finally finished his shift, but was surprised when he found Tamaki standing outside leaning against the wall with his vest off and the first two buttons of his crisp white collared shirt unbuttoned, cigarette in hand.

"I didn't know you smoke, Tamaki." Hikaru started, trying his best to get his own vest into his over stuffed bag.

Tamaki smirked at his friend.

"I'm French, what do you expect?" Tamaki joked, putting out the cigarette against the brick wall.

"I don't honestly know, you just don't strike me as someone who does."

"I can't honestly blame you, I only smoke when I'm pretty stressed out though, mostly when Ranka makes his rounds." Tamaki answered, sighing as he brought up that familiar name.

"Tell me about it, I'm getting a headache just remembering it." Hikaru groaned, staring down at the grassy area before pulling out a cigarette himself and lighting it, standing next to Tamaki as he opened a bottle of water and drank a sip from it.

"You know, you should probably apologize to that girl, what did Ranka say her name was again?" Tamaki attempted to remember, going through a various cacophony of names that sounded like they began with an 'h' but at this point Hikaru was too lazy to analyze them all.

"Haruhi." He interrupted, taking a long drag before shaking his head. "I doubt that it will happen though, it will probably blow over by tomorrow and all will be well."

The blonde beside him laughed a bit before bending over and picking up his black leather bag.

"He still remembers something I did six years ago, don't expect him to forget something that just happened today Hikaru." Tamaki warned, chuckling darkly before he gave a slight wave to his friend and walking off down the well lighted pathway to his apartment.

"Yea, but at least I didn't completely grope her." Hikaru mumbled under his breath before examining the lighted object in his hand.

"Those aren't very healthy for you."

"Do you honestly think I give a damn?" Hikaru asked, turning his head to the side to see the petite girl from earlier standing there with a crossed look on her tiny little face.

"No but it doesn't hurt to try." Haruhi shrugged her shoulders, walking to the bench that was right beside Hikaru and sitting down.

"Believe me, if you were in my situation right now, you would need one too." Hikaru scoffed, taking another drag before puffing the smoke out in repeated huffs.

"Um, Mr. Hitachiin-"

"Just call me Hikaru. I don't have formalities when I'm not even twenty yet."

"Alright then Hikaru, I just want to let you know that I told my dad that you didn't do anything. He was being a major drama queen over it." Haruhi attempted to reassure the ginger but to no avail Hikaru just didn't care at this point.

"At least I know we have _that_ in common." He muttered sarcastically, putting the cigarette out on the brick wall and picking up his bag.

"You didn't need to start it though." Haruhi pointed out then, stopping Hikaru in his tracks and looking at him with the same unamused expression she gave her father only a few hours prior.

"_Are you kidding me?_" Hikaru almost yelled at her, trying his best to keep his voice under control at the little girl, who may he remember is his boss' daughter.

"Yes, it was not necessary to take my clip in the first place." Haruhi replied flatly, rolling her eyes.

"It was just a joke!"

"It sure didn't seem like one." Haruhi responded before shrugging her shoulders and turning to make her way back into the building.

"You're kidding me, right?" Hikaru asked one last time, breathless from all the screaming that he wasn't even doing.

"Oh Hikaru, I think as we grow to know each other you'll see that I'm very rarely kidding." Haruhi giggled before closing the door shut behind her.

Hikaru stood there in the warm summer night staring at that door. Minutes passed by before he finally snapped out of it and just laughed, kicking a rock hard at the red wall before making his was down the path that Tamaki had took only minutes before.

A:N: Heylo world, I'm a tad bit tired so no exclamation mark today haha.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter and I must say, I am definitely enjoying how this story is coming along. AU's are always fun to write before the world is so different and so many things can happen.

So yea, I'm sorry for the hiatus, I've had soccer literally 6 times a week for the past month and I'm always exhausted (not to mention all of the honors classes I'm taking so there is some more shit to put on my to do list. I have to write an essay for Of Mice and Men which I am currently procrastinating on doing.) so when I finally got a break today, I watched a couple music videos, (The King For A Day by Pierce The Veil music video gives me life, I mean you don't even understand.) slaughtered a couple songs with my horrible covers of them (If my brothers hear Amnesia by 5 Seconds of Summer one more time they are going to kill me haha.) and then decided to write some fanfiction so here I am.

Anyway, even with my extreme exhaustion and such, I sincerely hope that I gave you a chapter that you liked and brought a smile on your face at least once, I hope to see your reviews, favorites and/or follows :)

Thank you for reading.


End file.
